The First, The Last, The Only
by quite-a-riot
Summary: As the final moments of Mavis' life creep closer, she cannot help but look back on the most beautiful and heartbreaking moment of her life. Set in canon (mostly) this one-shot serves to fill in some blanks in the cursed relationship that was doomed to tear two lovers from the bonds of mortality.


**Ok, so this is a little something I whipped up in response to a request for a little Zervis by Midnight Princess Fox. I was totally going to write something fluffy and happy, so I started this before the last chapter of FT was released.**

 **Then, I read that chapter...and, well, this is where their story should have ended (at least in my opinion), so I thought I'd go almost 100% canon/could-be-canon, and fill in some important gaps instead.**

 **So, some heartbreakingly angsty Zervis. I'll do something happy with them later to make up for it. I promise! Just had to get this out. Hope you enjoy it, my glitter cannon buddy!**

* * *

The pain was excruciating as Mavis lay next to him and placed her head on his shoulder.

It was hard not to think back to the only pain she'd ever felt that came close. So close to the end of such a long life for both of them, she couldn't help but be pulled back to that day. Of all the things he had ever done, for her or against her, that had been the most significant...

* * *

Mavis panted, breathing heavily in the pattern she was instructed to, sweat dripping down her face in rivulets.

"Two in, three out. Again. Two in, three out! You're doing fine," Porlyusica barked, not unkindly.

"As far as I can see, I haven't even done anything yet!" Mavis argued, hormones making her glare uncharacteristically at her pink-haired friend.

Not for the first time, Mavis remarked how much older the woman in front of her had gotten. They had been the same age when they met, but Porlyusica was almost thirty now. Was that how she herself would have looked if he hadn't… No. It wasn't worth thinking about.

What was done was done. And she was _done_ lamenting that they would never get to grow old together, sitting side by side, surrounded by offspring who loved them, and, of course, their books. Which was what had drawn them together in the first place after all.

Because while they would never grow old together, or at all, he had fulfilled his promise. He had found a way to give her what she so desperately wanted. There _would_ be new generations. And she would be around to play with their children, and their children's children. It was a gift she didn't think would ever be hers to hold and cherish. But, as she had come to expect from her quiet black wizard, he had persevered until he succeeded, and paid whatever cost was necessary. She had always admired that about him: his perseverance. Whatever else he did, that fact never changed. He was unstoppable when he put his mind to something. She ground her teeth and growled until she screamed as another contraction rolled over her.

"Ok, you're going to have to push, Mavis! It's time," Porly said, offering a rare smile to the woman who, slightly disturbingly, still looked like the girl who taught her how to whistle, and skip rope. It was bizarre to be in this position with someone who looked like no more than a child. Porlyusica had a moment of wistfulness for her own unborn children, but the pinkette quickly suppressed it. She had chosen her life as one of solitude. If she wasn't at peace with that, it was no one's fault but her own, and she refused to ruin the moment Mavis had been dreaming of for so many years. Plus, babies were pretty annoying most of the time.

"Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhh! Just GET IT OUT PORLY! PLEASE!" Mavis suddenly just couldn't take it anymore. She wanted to see her child, the baby that had swelled in her womb the last nine months and two weeks. She wanted to hold him and sing to him, and tell him all about Fairy Tail and how happy he was going to be raised in such a loving and glorious place. Sure, the guild wouldn't know he was hers, or the process of sneaking her body out of the lacrima and secreting herself away from the guild hall for the length of her pregnancy would all have been in vain. But her baby would be loved all the same. Because how could it not be, in such a happy place?

"Alright, last push Mavis. This is the big one!" Porlyusica said as she worked between the slight blonde's legs. Mavis took in one finally breath and pushed with everything she had, collapsing back against the pile of pillows bolstering her as her baby broke out into a piercing cry. She relaxed with her eyes closed as Porly cut and tied the cord, cleaning the worst of the goop off of her son. But, just as the pinkette was about to hand over her squirming bundle of joy, two things happened.

One, another contraction swept through her, causing her to scream in agony at the unexpected continuance of the pain.

And two, Makarav Dreyer, already short in stature though solidly in his prime, blonde hair shaggy and windblown, burst through Porlyusica's door yelling.

"Porly! We need you! Warrod has-"

He cut himself off as he took in the scene of his supposedly dead first master screaming her face red as Porlyusica held a child and looked for somewhere to set him down. Hurriedly, Porly took the interruption as a practical necessity and handed the stunned man the baby in her arms, making it back just in time to catch the second child Mavis was forcing out of herself. A second cry split the air and Mavis' eyes popped open.

"Twins?!" she squealed, using the last of her energy to sit up and try to see the baby over the blanket tented over her raised knees before collapsing back again, disappointed. "Porly, I have twins?!"

Her speech seemed to kick Makarov out of his haze.

"First? What are you doing here? How are you alive? WHOSE BABIES ARE THESE?!"

Porlyusica handed Mavis one of her sons, and walked up to the hysterical blonde man, taking the child in his arms and slapping the screaming man soundly across the face.

"Shut up Makarov, you're upsetting the babies," she snapped. Which was true. The two little boys had begun wailing and only settled down when Porlyusica settled Mavis' second son into her waiting, outstretched arm.

The minute the two were snuggled up against their mother they quieted considerably.

Makarov just stood across the room glowering at the whole process and trying maintain his manly composure. He had a real urge to break down crying and talk in nonsense words to the wittle tiny things! That is _little_. Little tiny things. Makarov cleared his throat, relieved that his words hadn't left his head.

Both women looked at him and simultaneously furrowed their brows. He resisted the urge to take a step back. Those glares were no joke.

"Makarov!" Porlyusica finally barked. "Why are you here learning secrets you shouldn't know?"

Makarov shook himself as he remembered why he was there in the first place.

"Warrod! He's stuck under a tree! We need your help to reattach his arm!"

Porlyusica held his gaze for a beat without moving and then grabbed her medical bag.

"Mavis, you good here until I get back?"

"I'll manage," the blonde said distractedly as she snuggled her babies. The other two occupants of the room scurried out and left the new mama alone with her beautiful boys.

The moment of peace didn't last long, however, as a black-haired head leaned over the bed to gazed at the new arrivals.

Mavis finally looked up when his hair tickled her forehead.

"Zeref!"

"Hello Mavis. You make a beautiful mother."

"What are you doing here?" Mavis whispered, subconsciously drawing her children closer to her.

"Can't a father see his only children at their birth?"

"But, we agreed it wasn't safe!"

"It's just as unsafe to leave them with you! Don't you remember what happened to Makarov's mother?" he gestured at the door through which that very man exited minutes before. Mavis paled at the implication.

"But I could never…"

"It's not like either of us can control it Mavis! And you can't just not love your own children!"

"But, surely it will be fine if I'm not around them all the time! It's not like I kill the grass or anything!"

"Mavis, do you really want to risk them? For what? Your own pleasure? Don't they mean more than that?" he said gently. It wasn't the first time they'd had this conversation, but for the first time, Mavis could feel the horror of the decision ahead of her. She looked up to the father of her child with tears pushing at her exhausted eyes.

"But...not even a day? Not even a full day with them?" Mavis whimpered, hugging the tiny humans who had accompanied her everywhere for 42 weeks. She hadn't even known there were two of them! And now, just when they had barely seen her, they were going to be whisked away.

"Mavis…" the pain in his voice was palpable, and a little wisp of black curled into the air around him. "Please don't make this any harder. My Spriggans will take good care of them!"

"But...but...my babies…" Mavis sobbed, horrified to see small group of young adults trailing out behind him. "You can't take my BABIES!"

Zeref turned and walked to the door, his voice choked as he pushed out his final orders and swiftly left.

"I'm sorry Mavis. Take them. They need to be safe."

Mavis threw up illusions around her, the images of ferocious dogs flickering as she drained her body of the little energy she had left. Two teenagers, girls still themselves, each took a baby, one immediately cooing. The new mother collapsed, half off the bed and unable to move as tears streaked down her face crookedly to splash on the floor. She watched as complete strangers took her children from her. Her will to live waned. Why? Why was her life forever cursed?

Less than a day after that, Mavis snuck back into her guild and entered her lacrima once again. What was the point in being in the world again if she couldn't even be trusted around her own children? Better to sleep. Until she no longer loathed the body that killed the ones she loved. Forever if necessary.

* * *

So as Mavis lay on the paralyzed body of Zeref, she willed her body to do what it had been cursed to do...destroy the first, last, and only man she had ever loved with her whole heart, as he continually ripped it to pieces. As she embraced the love in her heart for him, for the first time in more than twenty years, Mavis felt peace settle over her, the light surrounding them beginning to eat away at their once immortal bodies.

And she felt nothing but relief. Finally, the world would be safe from them. And they could rest in each other's arms.

And hopefully, one day, she'd get to see her sons again. Not in battle, but as family. And talk they'd talk not about the victories they had won, but instead, the families they'd held in their arms.

One day.

The last particle of their love swept them away and Mavis and Zeref were finally free.


End file.
